Since the age of 10, Danica Patrick has been driving hard: from achieving multiple firsts for women during a twenty-year career in auto racing, to becoming a pop-culture icon, to founding multiple businesses after retiring from the racetrack, she doesn’t seem ready to take her foot off the gas any time soon.
Born in Beloit, Wisconsin, Patrick’s life in the fast lane began with winning her class three times in the World Karting Association Grand National Championship before moving to the U.K. in 1998 to focus on her racing career full-time. She returned to the U.S. in 2002 and continued to compete, becoming the first woman to win a pole position in the Toyota Atlantic Series in 2004. She moved to racing IndyCar in 2005, setting a new record as the highest-placed female finisher in Indianapolis 500 racing history, taking third place in 2009 and finishing the season fifth in the point standings.
Not content with her groundbreaking work on the IndyCar circuit, Patrick pivoted to racing stock cars in 2010, with a record-setting performance in the 55th Daytona 500 race and a final appearance in the Indianapolis 500, retiring in 2018 after two decades of setting records and breaking barriers as a woman in a sport long dominated by men.
Far from slowing down, retirement only increased her drive to achieve. Discussing her life after racing, Patrick said, “After the first few weeks, I just got stir crazy and feeling like I wasn't accomplishing much in my life. I said I was ready to get bored because it will make me motivated to do something, and that's exactly what happened.”
While best known for her hard-won fame in auto racing, her off-track activity has continued at a high level, seeing Patrick publish two books, play roles in television, music videos, and film, and make a record-setting 14 appearances in Super Bowl commercials. Her entrepreneurial endeavors include founding both the Somnium Vineyard in St. Helena, California and a clothing collection called “Warrior by Danica Patrick,” created in partnership with the G-III Apparel Group.
Furthering her media career, she launched her weekly podcast “Pretty Intense” (named after her second book) in 2019, saying, “I believe that each and every one of us has the power within ourselves to create the life that we really want...and I want to inspire you to go conquer your dreams, both professionally and personally. That’s why I created this podcast.”
For someone who spent twenty years driving hard toward the finish line, Danica Patrick has not stopped yet, continually improving and reinventing herself to meet new challenges, breaking new ground, and serving as a source of inspiration for women determined to keep the ‘pedal to the metal’ in their own lives and careers.